Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus that communicates with various devices via a network, a method of controlling the apparatus, and a device control system.
Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, there has been known a system in which an information processing apparatus, such as a personal computer (hereinafter referred to as a PC), as a client, uses a device (peripheral device), such as a printer, a storage, or a scanner, via a network. In such a system, there has been proposed one in which a client virtually recognizes a device on a network as a device locally connected thereto, whereby it is made possible to access the device from the client on the network.
The present assignee has proposed a client apparatus and a device control system in which device connection control is performed such that the client forms device stacks for controlling the devices via device servers, thereby making it possible to connect the devices up to the maximum number of connectable devices defined by a device interface standard or by a SDK (Software Development Kit) provided by a manufacturer or a vendor as a program (function) necessary for device control (see Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2011-129111).
However, when a user desires to control a lot of devices existing on the network, in spite of a sufficient processing capacity (specifications) of the PC, if the maximum number of connectable devices is limited by the device interface standard or the SDK, it is impossible to control more devices than the limited number of connectable devices. For this reason, it is desired that the client apparatus and the device control system in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2011-129111, which has been proposed by the present assignee, are further expanded and developed in function to thereby make it possible to perform device control connection such that more than the maximum connectable devices defined by the device interface standard or the SDK can be connected.